


Eda Walks Into the Woods and Comes Out With a Child

by nynxisme



Series: My Little Sparrow [1]
Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: Adoption, Child Amity, Found Family, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Parent Eda, Sparrow AU, eda is a disaster with children and honestly? mood, eda wanders into the woods and adopts a young amity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-10
Updated: 2020-09-10
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:48:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,650
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26382889
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nynxisme/pseuds/nynxisme
Summary: When Eda went into the woods to figure out what the screeching was that night, she hadn't been expecting to come back with a kid, days away from turning seven.But, well. What you get on the Boiling Isles isn't always what you expect to happen.
Series: My Little Sparrow [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1917406
Comments: 14
Kudos: 223





	Eda Walks Into the Woods and Comes Out With a Child

**Author's Note:**

> so! i've never actually posted any fanfiction onto this site before, nonetheless an au. so. hope this works out.
> 
> bit of context; in this au Amity runs away from home a bit before her 7th birthday (the flashback we see in Understanding Willow) and runs into Eda, who then adopts and raises her from that moment on.
> 
> i'd also like to apologize if the characters are ooc. this is the first piece of writing ive done overall for toh so i might not have a good grasp on them yet, but heres to hoping i write more.
> 
> also please give me criticism i really need some

The day Eda met Amity was an overall mediocre day until the moon was high in the sky and all witches and creatures (except those that were nocturnal or did business at the Night Market) were asleep.

She’d sold some wares, ran from a few Emperors Coven guards, and pick pocketed a decent amount of stuff during the day, so when night fell she was expecting to just head back home to Hooty and pass out in her nest until tomorrow, as she usually does.

At first, it seemed she’d get to do exactly that as she laid in her nest, just seconds away from passing out.

And then a screech echoed out in the forest around the house.

Now, see, normally Eda would’ve been able to ignore the screeches outside of her house. It's the Boiling Isles. It would’ve been more worrying if there wasn’t any screeching throughout the night.

No. What _did_ catch Eda’s attention was the second screech that came after it. A screech that was high-pitched and a _child_.

Eda’s eyes flew open and before she could really gather her thoughts that, maybe, just maybe, the child-like screech wasn’t _actually_ a child, she was grabbing Owlbert and flying into the woods in the direction of the sounds, Hooty calling after her.

Rationally, Eda knew this was probably a horrible idea. At worst, she’d be caught by a creature that she’d have to waste magic on fighting off or maybe it was the Emperors Coven trying to lure her out and she’d have to make them regret ever joining said coven.

_ Or maybe, worst case, there actually is a child out in the forest past midnight that's in some kind of danger. _

Eda wasn’t sure which she wanted to believe more.

It only took about a minute or two to find what she was looking for, but it was a minute or two too long for Eda. It only took a few seconds to learn which of the worst case scenario options was right.

A young witchling was cornered by what Eda quickly recognized as a lesser basilisk. Overall not a dangerous creature to fully grown witches, but to a child? Well, there's a reason witchlings are told to stay out of the forests until they can cast spells reliably.

Within seconds, Eda had landed in front of the creature, drew a spell circle, and blasted it with a simple fire spell, causing it to let out a displeased screech before disappearing back into the forest.

Eda turned to the kid, who she now noticed had multiple scrapes and rips in her outfit, as if she’d been running through the forest for some time now.

_Maybe she has_ , some part of Eda’s mind whispered. Eda didn’t want to think about why a child would be in the forest this late, alone.

“Wh- Who are you?” Snapped Eda out of her musings, the voice small and still quivering with fear. Eda crouched down in front of the child before she spoke,

“Hm. Eda the Owl Lady, at your service. And who might you be?” She asked, making sure to keep her voice from being too loud. Regardless of if she succeeded or not, the witchling flinched.

“A- Amity,” broke the forest's silence after a few seconds and Eda let out a small hum of thought.

“Well then, Amity. What is a little witchling like you doing in the woods this late at night? Aren’t you supposed to, I dunno, be in bed, being read a story, be tucked in, somethin’ like that?” Eda said, her gaze never leaving the still trembling kid in front of her.

The kid- Amity, went silent at that, her expression turning from fear and nervousness to one of sadness and almost seemed distant. Eda let out a sigh and shifted, which caused Amity to quickly dart her eyes to her and flinch back. At this point she was practically pushing herself against the tree behind her.

Eda decided to try and take a different approach, “Do you have somewhere to go? Somewhere I might be able to take you? ‘Cause, sorry to say, this forest probably isn’t the best place to stay during the night.”

“I-” a pause, “I’m not going back,” her face, even though it was obvious she was still afraid from what had happened and whatever else Eda might not have witnessed, had a growing look of determination, “You can’t make me go back.”

Eda felt a headache start up, her ears drooping slightly before she let out another long sigh that she quickly cut off halfway through when Amity flinched back yet again, which now was starting to worry Eda.

“Fine. I probably have a room to spare for a kid as small as you.” She reached a hand out, already knowing she’d probably regret doing this. She didn’t know who this kid was or why she seemed to not wanna go back home, but she wasn’t just going to leave the kid all alone out in the forest.

Amity eyed her hand suspiciously before reaching out to grab it, although Eda could see her hesitation. Eda stood up and climbed onto her staff, a tad bit surprised when Amity seemed to get the hint and, with a nod from Eda, climbed on in front of the wild witch.

The whole fly back to her house was silent, both witch and witchling not wanting to say something that might upset the other. Eda was also counting the seconds until she could get back to her nest and sleep.

They land and get off, Eda leading the way up to Hooty, Amity following a few steps behind her, obviously out of place.

“Where’d you fly off in a hurry this late at night? Hoot?” Eda glanced behind her when she heard a small yelp come from the witchling, but still responded to Hooty,

“Just an issue with a lesser basilisk. Keep an eye out for it, would you?” she asked before pulling him open and gesturing for Amity to get inside. Said witchling did, but not without eyeing Hooty with a confused and distrustful look. Eda might just have to give the kid props for that.

Eda shut the door behind her and quickly led the kid through a doorway and up the stairs. She’d give her a proper introduction to Hooty and a tour of the house tomorrow. As it stood then, she just wanted to get to sleep.

She stuck her head into a few rooms before settling on a somewhat empty room that she honestly couldn’t remember the purpose of, even with the context of what was already in the room. It might’ve been a storage closet or it might’ve been a weird amalgamation of a living room and a storage closet.

It was probably just a storage closet. She had a lot of those.

“Wait here.” she said before heading for another storage closet and grabbing some extra pillows and blankets that didn't look completely unusable. She brought them back to where she left Amity, slightly raising an eyebrow when she saw how nervous the kid looked.

Eda bit back yet another sigh (she’s been doing that a lot tonight), remembering how the witchling had taken her previous ones back in the forest, “Don’t worry about getting attacked again. Hooty can keep anything out.”   
  
“Anything?” She seemed to ask quietly, although it seemed to be more to herself then anything. She seemed to be thinking about something specific when she spoke, and Eda would wager that it wasn’t the lesser basilisk.

“Yeup.” She stated, “He can even keep the Emperors Coven out, which is a pretty good feat considering how many times I’ve caught them sneaking around here.”

“So… you _are_ the lady on the, um, posters?” Amity asked, glancing up at Eda this time as she spoke, which caused Eda to pause before she grinned, “Yep! I introduced myself as the Owl Lady didn’t I? Do I have to do it _again_?” 

Amity seemed to grow visibly nervous as she quickly responded, “N- No! I- I remember I just-” She shifted in place a bit before continuing, “wasn’t sure if you were the same person and I just didn’t want to assume because-”

“Alright don’t worry,” she quickly interrupted, only to bite her tongue when Amity quickly shut up and went still, “everything’s fine. I just wanna head back to sleep.”

“Right. Sleep. I’m sorry that I’ve kept you up.”   
  


“Ah, don’t worry about it kid. I’m just glad you’re alright. Speaking of.” she gestured Amity a bit closer, and when the kid was close enough she drew a small spell circle over all of the scrapes she could see.

“That better?” She asked, watching the kid look at her arms and legs now that they were healed. She glanced back up towards Eda before glancing off to the side, her ears twitching lower.

“I- uhm- y- yeah. Thanks.” Eda raised an eyebrow at the response but didn’t question it. The two stood there for a few seconds before Eda cleared her throat and spoke again, “So, uh, will you be alright for tonight? I can probably find some more permanent pillows and blankets tomorrow,”

“I’m… alright.” She said simply, although for the first time that night she actually had a small smile on her face, although it _was_ barely noticeable. She’d still count it as a win though.

“My doors just down the hall. If you need something I’ll be in there. Bathrooms two doors down on the right. See you in the morning,” she finished before walking off back to her room, able to feel Amity’s eyes on her the entire way before turning and closing her door.

As Eda laid back down in her nest and got comfortable, she stared up at the ceiling and pondered just what she’d gotten herself into.


End file.
